I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing In Perfect Harmony

The Coca~Cola Facebook page has been pure comedy gold since last night.

Why? Oh they aired a very sweet commercial that featured a number of families and individuals of various races. there was even an interracial gay couple with a kid. And it was all set to the tune of America the Beautiful in several languages. It’s really very cute.

Awwwww! The correct answer is awwww, you know, in case you were wondering.

But, of course, some people, a lot of people…what’s the term I’m looking for? Hmmmmm? Oh, right, lost their fucking minds.

Terri Terri Hated the commerical. As soon as it started I was dumbfounded and thinking WTF is this? The American language is ENGLISH…Period!! The song is about America not other countries. I will agree with an earlier post that if it had been all in.

Truth to a liberal is like daylight to a vampire Ellis, if you have a problem with us rejecting the country turning into a dumping ground for illegal aliens and foreign parasites and freeloaders, then get out and go elsewhere and take that homely wife and kid with you. I don’t care whether or not you’re in the military. My father was a Lt Col in the USMC but if we had dissenting opinions, we’d agree to disagree. Take a hint, genius. Most immigrants today do NOT work harder than whites, they collect welfare and take handouts whenever they can and continue to have kids who they cannot fiscally support. The stats of bottom feeding trash which live on the dole is comprised mostly of minorities just as the prison populace is compromised mostly of minorities, who commit high percentage of the crime yet they comprise a small percentage of the population. Do your research and your sue diligence before posting your drivel.

Imma pause quickly here to point out that the majority of the people on public assistance are Caucasians. This guy really, really tries to wave the intellectual flag but he doesn’t seem to have any relationship with logic or facts so…no.

And there were a number of people who were mortally offended that Coke has “changed The National Anthem,” to different languages.

Douglas Lopes call it a matter of honor or a matter of prestige or a matter of tradition… I believe any countrys native patriotic songs especially their national anthem, should be song in that country’s native tongue… I don’t care what country.

Here is just a sampling from Twitter.

That coke commercial where they have national anthem song in different languages is disrespectful #speakenglish#fuckcoke I will have pepsi

A~ points out that at least part of the reason for this is that extremism has become normalcy. The way she explains it, you’re not a fan of something unless you spend two or three days before its release camping out in the snow before its release. You don’t really love a band unless you are willing to sell your first born for a backstage pass. And, of course, when it comes to politics, you’re not really into politics unless you’re willing to go totally batshit over something that probably isn’t that important.

Then she smirked at me because she’s read this blog and I’m not even going to pretend that I haven’t possibly blown my stack over something that is small in the relative scheme of things.

And part of it is the anonymity of the internet; although I think that some of these people don’t realize that their names are next to what they are typing. By the way, yes I used their names. They posted that shit. They can stand by it.

And let’s not forget that part of it is the extreme hate that people feel is not only their right but their responsibility. So they howl and rend their garments and probably gnash their teeth. OK, probably just metaphorically, at least for the first two, but still. The irrational reaction is rooted, at least in part, in the extreme xenophobia that, along with racism, misogyny, homophobia, and general, dislike of anyone that disagrees with them, is simply a part of the right wing.

Don’t get me wrong, the left boycotts things too, that chicken joint comes to mind, but we tend to do it with knowledge of why rather than misidentifying the National Anthem and generally just pretending that no other languages exist. Or that Coke isn’t an international company or that they haven’t been singing the same song since before I was born.

To me, this is the really sad thing. Their advertising tactic is not even a little bit new. In 1971, which is when the above ad debuted, seeing all of those people of different races together singing a song? It was just as surprising and controversial as the new ad is today.

But the thing we can be proud of is that the shock and controversy is aberrant today. It’s 2014 and while there was a lot of hate and ignorance, most people just watched the ad, thought it was cute and, at worst, didn’t think about it anymore.

What that tells us is that despite the hateful and fact free nature of many of these objections, things are getting better. We are making progress.